2 72 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



If these nectarines be planted, the seed will produce not peaches, 

 as a rule, but nectarines.^ 



This observation of Darwin's, early confirmed by later obser- 

 vations, came at a time when botanists, after much discussion, 

 had about decided to put the nectarine in a separate species from 

 the peach. The fact, however, that nectarines are often pro- 

 duced on the same tree with peaches, and often by a limb that 

 in other years also grows peaches, — this fact, when clearly 

 proved, put a stop to the discussion, and not only ended a puz- 

 zling debate, but showed also that specific lines cannot always 

 be clearly drawn. The nectarine is therefore recognized as a 

 sport, or, more properly, a mutant of the peach, because it 

 arises not once but many times from that fruit. Incidentally 

 we learn by this that new strains may arise from old stock 

 repeatedly, and that certain combinations of plant and animal 

 characters are constantly giving off new strains or species ^ 

 represented by essentially new combinations. 



As indicated by the name, the peach has been generally 

 credited to Persia, from whence it was introduced into European 

 cultivation shortly after the beginning of the Christian era.^ 

 This is not, however, proof of its Persian origin, neither is the 

 fact of its being found wild in many districts of western Asia ; 

 for, like the orange, it easily escapes, and when it does so the 

 seedlings are exceedingly inferior. 



As no name for the peach is found either in Hebrew or San- 

 skrit, CandoUe is inclined to give the peach a Chinese origin, 

 consigning it to that limbo of all unknown and untraceable 

 things, central Asia. 



1 " Animals and Plants under Domestication," Vol. I, p. 361. 



2 The term " species " is here used not in its narrow biological sense, but 

 in the wider sense of strains that are sufficiently constant to breed among 

 themselves. 



^ It is notable that the very ancient people seemed to have confined their 

 agriculture to the production of necessary grains, and that the luxury of fruits 

 and toothsome delicacies belonged to later times and more luxurious living 

 generally. 



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